A Clean Slate

On Tuesday night in class the teacher told us, “Karma is never a punishment; there is always a desire to learn.” I was so drawn to the words and to the implication of that truth. A subtle curiosity dawned as to from where the idea of a punishing supreme being came.

When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

~ From “Views of the Faith Mind”

We are so very conditioned to polarities, we sometimes take for granted they “exist.”

What if polarities are really just conditioned states of mind?

In The Sound of Silence, Ajahn Sumedho describes a state that is “ever present but only noticed if attended to.”

My blood pressure has been up again since Hurricane Ian came onshore in our beloved community in Southwest Florida, before driving destruction onward across the state and on up into North Carolina. As I was sitting with all of that on October 12, I realized the elevated blood pressure might really be Europe anniversary energy from 2011. I was going to the foot doctor later in the morning so I sat a clear intention to have everything be released with the day’s procedure.

Before leaving for my appointment I did a drawing and heard song lyrics in my head: What goes up, must come down; spinning wheel got to go round; talkin’ bout your troubles, it’s a cryin’ sin.

Then a poem:

A Clean Slate

My past is a thief robbing me of today
but only if I hold on — that’s the only way
I breathe in
I breathe out
I let go
I move out

No more ruminating
this is the root
today renders all those yesterdays
absolutely moot

Today the autumn hues
can erase a history of blues
the reds
yellows bright
orange shining
with glorious light

These cells and pores
win or lose
when I’m saving scores
wipe the slate clean
that’s what we mean

Do it now
let it go

Compassion
can and will flow

Debra Basham October 12, 2022

After I got home from the doctor, I had the first normal blood pressure reading in several days. I finished reading The Cherry Harvest, by Lucy Sanna. I did not like the ending. Online I saw this line in one review, “Really digs into the hidden behaviors that people often have but would never admit.” I wrote in my journal that I prefer a happy ending.

John Lennon is credited with saying everything will be okay in the end, so if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.

More from “Views of the Faith Mind” that resonates with all of this:

Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions.
do not remain in the dualistic state.
Avoid such pursuits carefully.
If there is even a trace of this and that,
of right and wrong,
the mind-essence will be lost in confusion.

Although all dualities come from the One,
do not be attached even to this One.
When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
nothing in the world can offend.
And when a thing can no longer offend,
it ceases to exist in the old way.

A few minutes ago I went out and took a video of the sky. To the left and to the right of a heavy band of clouds there was blue sky. It was so obvious that what you see depends on where you are looking.

A lot of life related to wintering in Pine Island has ceased to exist in the old way, yet another opportunity to breathe in and out and let go….